Chicago Cubs, Kris Bryant more impacted by Bryce Harper, not Mike Trout

Chicago Cubs: Making Kris Bryant a Cub for life

So let’s bring it back to the North Side, shall we? Since last October, we’ve seen several big-name free agents or potential future targets come off the board. Clayton Kershaw opted to stay in Los Angeles rather than test the open market. As we already noted, Arenado and Trout inked extensions and both Manny Machado and Bryce Harper set contract records in free agency.

The Chicago Cubs have big money coming off the books after 2019 – and there appear to be few options better than Anthony Rizzo and, more notably, Kris Bryant to spend it on.

Bryant, as we’re all well aware of, is coming off the worst season of his professional career. A pair of injuries, most notably a power-sapping shoulder injury, cost him more than 60 games – and kept him from producing when he was on the diamond.

But projecting his future off of what we saw last season would be nothing short of foolhardy. This guy has the potential to etch his name among the likes of Santo, Billy Williams and Ernie Banks before it’s all said and done.

In his first three full seasons, Bryant accumulated 19.7 WAR – as opposed to Trout’s 27.2 WAR (from 2012-2014 given he played just 40 games in 2011). But he put up a .288/.388/.527 triple-slash, which works out to a .915 OPS. In short, he’s exactly the type of player you want to build your lineup around for years to come.